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Shirley woman enjoys crossover career

By Hiroko Sato, hsato@lowellsun.com

Updated:
03/22/2013 08:18:52 AM EDT

Randi Nelson of Shirley, owner of The World in Stitches needlework shop in Littleton, with some needlepoint pieces from a trunk show by Karen Kluba, a counted cross-stitch artist whose company is called Rosewood Manor. SUN photos/Julia Malakie

Randi Nelson, owner of The World in Stitches in Littleton, has depicted the world as she sees it through her needlework for most of her life. Steeped in the Scandinavian family tradition of embroidery and knitting while growing up in southwestern Minnesota, Nelson, who taught biology at middle and high-school levels, first opened a needlepoint store with her business partner in Minnesota. She owned Needles and Noodles in Carlisle, where she used to live, before buying and moving New Hampshire-based The World in Stitches to Littleton. Married with a 27-year-old son, Nelson, 65, has lived in Shirley for the past six years.

Q: How did needle art start in New England?

A: It's the same as quilting and originated in the Colonial time.

"Beulah the Witch" and a Fenway Park box appear on a table in Nelson's shop. Both are needlepoint on painted canvas with embellished stitching by Randi Nelson.

When girls went to school, they learned how to do numbers and letters on a piece of fabric with embroidery and they are called samplers. Those are very revealing as to their life in the Colonial and pre-Colonial times.

Those are the pieces that are, if they survived, worth a lot of money.

Unfortunately, many of them are nailed onto boards. Wood has high acid content, which leaks into the fabric of samplers, causing deterioration. That's why few survived intact. It's important to have needlework framed by professional framers who use conservation framing techniques.

Q: How did you get into needle-art trading?

A: As the economy went downhill, I had an opportunity to sell an estate of a deceased individual in Boston.

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I sold all of his handpainted needlepoint canvases on eBay for his heirs. It turned out I really enjoyed doing that.

The eBay thing was a faster feedback on my efforts. I took the pictures, put up the listing, and in a week, it was gone or I didn't sell it.

Q: Are there heirloom needlework pieces that are worth a lot of money?

A: (One of my recent consignors) had a needlepoint kit from a teacher who is now retired. The value was in the set of 58-page instructions to create a 6-inch diameter needlepoint.

Randi Nelson of Shirley, owner of The World in Stitches needlework shop in Littleton, with one of her own counted needlepoint pieces done in hand-dyed pearl cotton. SUN/Julia Malakie

I started the listing for $80 because I thought it was a rare piece. It went for $280. I was shocked. There were two or three people bidding against each other. (Because) the teacher doesn't teach anymore, it was apparently important to the buyer to have the piece from the designer's repertoire.

Q: How much do old pieces sell for normally?

A: It's usually 75 percent to 60 percent of the original retail cost.

People are very aware that it's a secondary market. Hopefully people who owned it took good care of it.

I tell people if there is anything wrong with it -- if there is a musty smell to it or it has started to dishevel around the edges so that people will know (about it).

The only time they seem to have value is when it's very, very old and remaining in good condition.

Q: What is the biggest myth about needlework?

A: People still think it's an old-lady hobby thing despite the fact that, 10 years ago, knitting came more into vogue and young people started doing it. We need knitters, crocheters, needlepointers and counted-cross-stitchers doing it in public so that people can see.

Q: Yet your clients come from all walks of life, including men. Do people work on projects differently?

A: In watching what people buy, men and women who are in the engineering fields buy bigger and more elaborate, more difficult projects than other people.

Another difference is that men tend to work on one project to completion. Women work on several different things. When they get tired (with one project), they go through rotation and work on something else.

Q: Why do you like needle art?

A: I just find it a good way to use my time and have something to show for my time. I seem to like doing things with my fingers. I did a lot of beadwork and jewelry making, too, as a hobby. It's all part of the same thing -- it's manipulation with my fingers.

Q: Is that the reason most people like needlework?

A: Many of my customers find it very relaxing. In fact, studies have shown that people's blood pressure is reduced while working on needlework.

Q: What is the common reason for people not to try needlework?

A: People think that they do not have the patience to do it, whereas it teaches patience. It's not terribly expensive because you can access different levels of price points of needlework.

Q: What have you learned from doing needlework?

A: I think that you learn patience with yourself to not to be so hard on yourself and to not be so demanding. By extension, you are more patient with other people.

The World in Stitches sells knitting, needlepoint and counted-cross-stitch materials and provides professional finishing services, weekly classes and special events, drawing needlework enthusiasts from across the region. For information about the business, visit www.twisinc.com.

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